3 ms·

Existence IS meaningless, this is the very beauty of it: you can give it any meaning you want. You can even give your superego a face and think there is a big

Existence IS meaningless, this is the very beauty of it: you can give it any meaning you want. You can even give your superego a face and think there is a big guy in the sky that loves you and cares about what you do.

nathan_long 10y ago
> Existence IS meaningless, this is the very beauty of it: you can give it any meaning you want. Although you have to concede quite a lot. When you feel awe at the stars, or the exhilaration of love, or burning anger at injustice, you must tell yourself, "this feeling is just an adaptive delusion; there's nothing good about caring or wrong about rape and murder per se, I just happen not to like them because I'm That Sort of Mammal". If you say "existence is meaningless, morality doesn't exist" and in the next breath say anything about what people should or shouldn't do, including whether they should believe in God, I respectfully submit that it's inconsistent to do so. (Not that you should mind inconsistency.) This is my beef with people like Dawkins: if he's right, everything he says is utterly pointless.
- scardine 10y ago
  That is why I never talk about what people should or should not do - I talk only about some mind tricks that work for me. That said, I can concede a lot without pretending the universe somehow cares for me. I eat good food, and drink good wine, and just enjoy everything I have.
donutz 10y ago
If you have no meaning, how can you have any to give?
- scardine 10y ago
  You just make up some meaning from thin air. All meaning is made up. Meaning is a human construct, as any other concept. Even if you disagree with me, you may concede that for all practical means the universe is infinite and the human mind is finite. Since something finite can't contain the infinite, how foolish would I be if I pretend to understand the universe? Not that I agree with the creationists, I would love to believe that I'm special because some big guy in the sky gave me life. It is a comforting idea, but in order to accept the concept of an anthropomorphic god you have to believe that humans are somehow special, and this is very pretentious. I'm living in this tiny little rock floating in space which existence is barely a drop in the ocean of time. I'm not special except in the minds of the few people that manage to like me. But I will not pretend my own version of god is less made-up: the Tao we talk about is not the real Tao.

nathan_long 10y ago

> Existence IS meaningless, this is the very beauty of it: you can give it any meaning you want. Although you have to concede quite a lot. When you feel awe at the stars, or the exhilaration of love, or burning anger at injustice, you must tell yourself, "this feeling is just an adaptive delusion; there's nothing good about caring or wrong about rape and murder per se, I just happen not to like them because I'm That Sort of Mammal". If you say "existence is meaningless, morality doesn't exist" and in the next breath say anything about what people should or shouldn't do, including whether they should believe in God, I respectfully submit that it's inconsistent to do so. (Not that you should mind inconsistency.) This is my beef with people like Dawkins: if he's right, everything he says is utterly pointless.

scardine 10y ago
That is why I never talk about what people should or should not do - I talk only about some mind tricks that work for me. That said, I can concede a lot without pretending the universe somehow cares for me. I eat good food, and drink good wine, and just enjoy everything I have.

donutz 10y ago

If you have no meaning, how can you have any to give?

scardine 10y ago
You just make up some meaning from thin air. All meaning is made up. Meaning is a human construct, as any other concept. Even if you disagree with me, you may concede that for all practical means the universe is infinite and the human mind is finite. Since something finite can't contain the infinite, how foolish would I be if I pretend to understand the universe? Not that I agree with the creationists, I would love to believe that I'm special because some big guy in the sky gave me life. It is a comforting idea, but in order to accept the concept of an anthropomorphic god you have to believe that humans are somehow special, and this is very pretentious. I'm living in this tiny little rock floating in space which existence is barely a drop in the ocean of time. I'm not special except in the minds of the few people that manage to like me. But I will not pretend my own version of god is less made-up: the Tao we talk about is not the real Tao.